


feel like a person for a moment

by plinys



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M, episode speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 11:36:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15484899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: When the Salem Witch Trials are disrupted by the presence of an actual witch, everyone assumes that fixing the anachronism is pretty straight forward, they just need to capture Nora and return her to the Time Bureau, only Ray is not so sure.





	feel like a person for a moment

**Author's Note:**

> Or, guess who listened to a bunch of SDCC interviews and decided to write a speculative drabble based off of the behind the scenes photos from the episode they're currently filming, but it got long so here's a fic.

It had been an easy assumption to make. 

One that Ray could in no way blame the rest of the team for making, and in fact, when he stepped back and took a real look at the situation it made sense. 

The Salem witch trials being disrupted by the presence of an  _ actual witch _ , magic that had been so clear and undeniable the second that the Legends arrived on the scene, and at the center of it all an all too familiar fugitive of the Time Bureau who barely even managed to bother hiding.

Nora Darhk.

And it made sense. All these magic creatures around, everything that has been going wrong, the timeline matched. Blaming her for this - blaming himself for helping her escape - made sense. 

It was easy.

Almost too easy. 

“I think we might be making a mistake.” 

There’s a heavy silence among the gathered group of Legends following his words. Cutting off their celebrations of yet another mission successfully finished, as everyone seems to at least consider what Ray was saying for a moment. 

Nate shoots him a glance that says  _ I’ve been there  _ and really Ray’s not certain that he’s ready for yet another discussion of what that was. Especially since if the  _ other  _ woman that they had seen in Salem was anything to go off of, things were about to get a whole lot more complicated for Nate too.

Mick grumbles something that Ray’s pretty sure is not actually words.

And Zari takes a large bite out of her slice of pizza, pointedly not looking at Ray as she does so. 

It is Sara who finally speaks, suspicion heavy in her voice. 

“You think she wanted us to capture her,” Sara asks. “That this is part of her plan?”

He’s not certain why he expected anything less. But he still feels something, not quite disappointment, but rather a defense edge flare up inside of himself at Sara’s tone. 

“No,” Ray says, quickly, probably a bit too quickly, if the rest of his teammates’  _ looks  _ were anything to judge by. “No, I just think, maybe it was too easy because it wasn’t  _ her _ .”

Nate snorts. “He’s got a  _ crush _ .”

While Ray is not too proud to admit that he might have something like that on Nora, his best friend was more than well aware of the truth. And that was… That it was so much more than an attraction. 

Of course he found Nora attractive, who couldn’t.

But that wasn’t what kept drawing him back in.

It was a belief in her, one that had been building since the time that they spent together in Berlin, maybe even before that if he was being honest with himself. As far as Ray was concerned nobody was ever truly lost, half their team was made up of former criminals when they all got right down to it.

And if someone like Mick could turn a new leaf.

Why couldn’t Nora?

Why shouldn’t she be given the chance?

Sara, however, doesn’t look convinced. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Sara says after a moment. “The Time Bureau will be able to take care of her, she’s not our problem.” 

“I guess so,” Ray replies, even though the words feel wrong. 

Suddenly beer and pizza with the team to celebrate their victory in Salem doesn’t feel quite as much fun as it usually would be. 

Nobody tries to stop him when he leaves a few moments later. 

Distantly as he goes, he hears a question among the gathered group, one that he knows his expression would have given away: “How did she even get out anyways?”

It doesn’t take long to get to where they’re keeping Nora.

He knows the way. Knows his way around nearly every nook and cranny on this ship. And he should, seeing as he’s been living here for the better part of the past three years. 

Though this particular room was not one that he frequented often. 

He can’t remember the last time the team even had use for their glorified shame cube that they called a brig. Certainly sometimes one of the team accidentally locked themselves in there after a night of drunken strip scrabble or whatever the game of the week is, but the last time it had been used for a real criminal was well… Probably Rip, back when he had been brainwashed.

A thought that didn’t sit too easily on Ray’s mind. 

Nora is in much the same state she was when he had left her hours before, when they all had. Sitting with her back to the wall, eyes closed, as if in some sort of private mediation. She might actually be, Ray doesn’t know enough about magic to be sure. Either way she looks almost peaceful, innocent, not the way she looked when they had found her in Salem.

Then again, even there she hadn’t looked hostile. In fact, if Ray were to have guessed he would have thought that she looked  _ afraid.  _

Afraid to be caught, they had all assumed.

But maybe they had been too quick to assume.

Maybe the rest of the team was always a bit too quick to assume when it came to Nora. 

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you that it’s rude to stare,” Nora asks. Her voice only a little sarcastic, her eyes still closed, still at ease.

A part of him can’t help but wonder how she had known it was him. Though he supposed that if he were to ask, her only answer would be  _ magic _ . 

Science, Ray understood. Cold hard facts. 

Magic was something else entirely. 

“Sorry,” he says reflexively.

And he swears for a second, Nora’s lips twitch upwards to something that is almost a smile. 

She opens her eyes slowly, and he watches her as she moves away from the wall and closer to him. There’s nothing hostile in her pose. Nothing like the threat everyone else was making her out to be.

“What are you doing here,” Nora asks, “Come to keep me company in my final moments of freedom?”

He’s not sure what to say.

Not sure how to put what he was feeling in words.

He’s normally so good at this, but there’s something about Nora that makes it so much harder to process it all. More than just the  _ crush  _ that Nate has taken the habit to tease him about. It’s more than that. 

Something that draws him back to Nora time and time again. 

Ray shrugs, not an answer, the best that he can manage. 

Nora seems to accept this though with a small nod. 

“It wasn’t me, not this time,” she insists, the same thing that she has been insisting this whole time.

Except this time…

This time she’s only looking at Ray, she’s only talking to him.

“Do you know who it was?”

This time it’s Nora’s turn to shrug in reply. 

A not answer. He didn’t really expect one. 

She’s still watching him though, looking at him the same way she had when he gave her that time stone, gave her one last chance to prove herself. He had believed in her then, believed in her when no one else had, and now… Now she was looking at him like that. Like she needed him to believe in her one last time.

And that has to count for something. Surely? 

He wants to believe her. 

Even though he knows that he probably shouldn’t. Even though there’s a thousand warning bells going off in the back of his head. He believes her, just as he always has. 

There’s good inside Nora. Ray can sense it.

He’s known since the first time they met. From the way she had hesitated, the way she had held back, the way she had looked at him when she thought that he wasn’t paying attention. There’s good inside of her, good that even that demon couldn’t have stolen away from her.

She just needs a chance to prove herself.

And letting his team ship her back to the Time Bureau, to a prison cell, with no chance of escape this time - that was dooming her to a fate that she didn’t deserve. He couldn’t do that. Couldn’t let them do that.

Which meant there was only one other option.

Nora.

Or the Legends.

It feels like a leap of faith, but the right kind, when he tells her, “I believe you.” 

 


End file.
